OEDA Team Retreat 2025

Purpose

OEDA met for three working days to do some strategic planning. We used Beer’s Viable System Model as an organizing structure.

The Viable System Model

Intro

The Viable System Model is a framework for diagnosing and designing organizations so they remain viable: adaptive, resilient, and capable of surviving in complex environments. The model identifies five core subsystems that must exist and function well for any organization (including a team like ours) to be viable. These subsystems exist within a larger environment, and the way that they communicate and balance one another is a key to long-term success.

graph TD
    A[Environment] -->|Inputs| B[System 1]
    B --> C[System 2]
    C --> D[System 3]
    D --> E[System 4]
    E --> F[System 5]
    F -->|Outputs| A

    subgraph "System 1"
        B1[Operational Unit 1]
        B2[Operational Unit 2]
        B3[Operational Unit 3]
        B1 -->|Coordination| C
        B2 -->|Coordination| C
        B3 -->|Coordination| C
    end

    subgraph "System 2"
        C1[Coordination]
    end

    subgraph "System 3"
        D1[Control]
        D2[Audit]
        D1 -->|Feedback| D2
        D2 -->|Anomaly Detection| D1
    end

    subgraph "System 4"
        E1[Planning]
    end

    subgraph "System 5"
        F1[Policy]
    end

    D -->|Feedback| C
    E -->|Feedback| D
    F -->|Feedback| E 

System 1